Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “Let me just talk about the guys that will miss practice today. Mike Adams, as I’ve mentioned, has a shoulder sprain so he’ll miss practice today. He’s making good progress, nothing final on this weekend yet. Montario (Hardesty), we’re going to give him a little rest today just to see if we can jump start his healing back as we go forward. Quinton Spears won’t practice. T.J. Ward he continues to improve, he’s been running but he won’t practice. The rest of the guys will be limited in some fashion aside from, of course, the guys that won’t be here with the roster moves we made with putting Scott Fujita and Emmanuel Stephens on IR. We moved up a couple guys from the practice squad and, obviously, we made a change at long snapper. I’m looking forward to getting the preparation going, we had a good morning of meetings, walk-through was good and get out there and get prepared for the Ravens.”

The Browns (4-7) practiced today in preparation for their road game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens (8-3). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

The Browns signed long snapper Christian Yount today to replace Ryan Pontbriand, whose uncharacteristic slump cost him his job. Pontbriand's nine-year career with the Browns ended today when he was waived.

Pontbriand, 32, established a reputation as one of the best long snappers in the NFL after former Browns coach Butch Davis selected him in the fifth round (142nd overall) of the 2003 draft. Pontbriand made the Pro Bowl in 2007 and 2008.

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement) - “First start with injuries. Scott Fujita is going to need surgery on his hand, he’s going to miss a significant amount of time. Quinton Spears is coming back, he’s continuing to progress, we’ll see how he does for the week. Emmanuel Stephens has a pec (pectoral) strain and again he, like Scott, will miss a significant amount of time, so we’ll just leave it at that right now. T.J. Ward continues to progress with his foot. He’ll do more this week and he’ll continue to run. We’re hopeful that we’ll have him back soon and then his finger, of course, is better. Mike Adams sprained his shoulder in the game. We’ll just see how he is day-to-day. Montario Hardesty, he did not play so he didn’t do anything more to his calf. He was sore late in warm-ups and he could not compete. Jayme Mitchell is making progress on his ankle. Guys that played in that game, Peyton Hillis had no setbacks; he actually came out of it pretty well. Kaluka (Maiava) sprained his knee, he’ll be day-to-day and we’ll just see how he does. Colt McCoy, on the first drive when he scrambled, went down on his elbow and he’s got a little bit of a sore elbow but he’s fine. He’ll work this week. I would consider it he’s sore from the game. Tony Pashos the same as always and then Dimitri Patterson, you saw where Phil (Taylor) fell on him, but he’s actually doing pretty well today. The rest of the guys you can ask about will be full go.

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today following practice. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “I thought the practice was good. The guys came back with a good focus after kind of an abbreviated Thursday, which is typical during Thanksgiving week so practice was good. In terms of the injuries, Montario (Hardesty) had a great day. He’ll be ready to roll. Peyton Hills did some good stuff yesterday after practice and he’s made huge progress this week. He participated throughout practice today and I think at this point, although I ruled him out early in the week, and I’ve said all along these hamstrings come back for some guys quicker than we thought. I’m going to make him a game-time decision so we’ll just have to see as we move forward. Again, because he hasn’t played ball in a long time, I think it’s still important that I’m cautious with his return. Tony Pashos was not here today, his wife’s in labor and he’s there with her so that’s why he wasn’t here. The rest of the guys competed. Jayme Mitchell did not practice today his ankle is bothering him so I don’t know what his status will be for the game.”

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today after his team practiced in preparation for its road game Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. Here are some of the highlights from the news conference:

The Browns (4-6) practiced today in preparation for their road game Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals (6-4). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

Browns defensive end Dick Jauron met with reporters today. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(On Emmanuel Stephens working his way into the starting lineup)- “Emmanuel was a really good pick up for us and he’s a hard working young man. He’s a tough guy, plays hard and explosive off the line of scrimmage. He’s very young in his career and learning how to play, but he really has given us solid games and has played well. I’m really happy we got him and I think there’s a very good deal of upside to him too. I think he’ll just continue to improve.”

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “In terms of injury information of note, Montario (Hardesty) will practice today and Owen Marecic won’t. He’s still feeling some of the effects of his concussion so he won’t be out there. The rest of the guys if you have interest I’ll let you know. Other than that that’s where we’re at. The walk-through was good. Unfortunately, we got so much rain, I don’t like to go inside if we don’t have to, but the fields are pretty soggy so we’ll stay inside.”

The Browns (4-6) practiced today in preparation for their road game Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals (6-4). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today before his team practiced in preparation for its road game Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. Here are some of the highlights from the news conference:

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today to discuss his team's 14-10 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement) - “All right, as we get started here. Peyton Hillis once again will be out this week, (I’ll) just give you that right up front. Injuries from the game, Owen Marecic sustained a concussion and we’ll see how he progresses this week. We obviously follow the guidelines and the standards returning from those injuries very strictly so we’ll see how he does. I can’t tell you yet his availability for Sunday. Quinton Spears has a hamstring injury and we’ll have to see how he does. It’s somewhat significant so we’ll have to see how he progresses through the week. T.J. Ward will be out as well, as he recovers from his foot sprain, so we’ll know more as we go. Other guys, based on what I see here unless someone becomes more or less sore, just game soreness. I feel like the rest of the guys will have a very good chance of being there on Sunday.”

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “There’s nothing new to add. The only thing I would say is Montario (Hardesty) will be a game time decision, we’ll see. He’s increasing his workload and we’ll just see on Sunday if he’s ready to go, otherwise no changes there.”

The Browns (3-6) practiced today in preparation for their home game Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars (3-6). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

(On Phil Taylor having a nice game against the Rams)- “At least in my opinion he had maybe his best game last week. He had worked hard leading up to it. The preparation was part of it. I do believe like we’ve said all along, that every week he learns a little more. Obviously, he’s playing against different people and different schemes to some degree. There’s a lot to learn in there and a lot to feel. They can come at him in a lot of ways. He did a very nice job a week ago. He made some big plays for us in that game and was a force inside at some critical times.”

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “There’s nothing really to add from yesterday as I talked about. Montario (Hardesty), I think you were out there and you had a chance to see him run around and that was about the extent of his day. He’ll do the same thing today and we’ll just see how he feels and then we’ll make a determination on his availability as we get near the end of the week. Peyton Hillis, as I mentioned, is out and then T.J. Ward is no change from my comments yesterday. The rest of the guys all practiced and I felt like Mo (Mohamed Massaquoi) did a nice job in practice. We weren’t in pads yesterday and he probably won’t do much banging, but he felt good, ran around and looked good. Everybody else was involved in practice to some degree.”

The Browns (3-6) practiced today in preparation for their home game Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars (3-6). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “Let’s first start with the guys that will be out of practice today. Montario Hardesty will be out of practice although he’s doing some running. I’m not ruling him out for the weekend, there’s a chance he could be there. Peyton Hillis is out this week. He’s continuing with his rehab, we’ll see how he does. T.J. Ward had his cast removed. What we found is that he’s progressing well, he went back in another cast and that the point we take him out of the cast here soon, he’ll go to a walking boot and then keep continuing to improve. What we found when we took the cast off was that he’ll be back. Mo (Mohamed Massaquoi) will be out at practice today, his symptoms have dissipated so he’ll be out there practicing. Everybody else will be limited in some fashion, Auston English, Jayme Mitchell, (Tony) Pashos, (Dimitri) Patterson, those are probably the names of note.”

The Browns (3-6) practiced today in preparation for their home game Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars (3-6). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today to discuss his team's 13-12 loss to the St. Louis Rams. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement) - “For this week’s game I’m going to rule out Peyton Hillis and T.J. Ward. Everybody else you can call them questionable, limited, full go, everybody else will have a chance to be there. Peyton’s obviously rehabbing his hamstring, he’s continuing to make progress but I’m going to rule him out. T.J. Ward, he’s being further evaluated, they’re going to change his cast today, get an X-ray, see where he’s at and we’ll decide how we move forward with him. But, there is no way that he’ll play this week and then we’ll see how we proceed. I’m just like every other person in the city of Cleveland that woke up this morning disappointed we lost. I feel the same frustration. I’m disappointed, but not discouraged. I feel it, I’ve lived it. I’m from this region, I understand what everybody feels when you don’t win and what we’re trying to do is change that. When you don’t win, it’s hard for me to sit here and talk about the good things that happened. I’ll let you ask me and then we’ll take it from there because I know we made progress in some areas, but we didn’t play well enough to win. The focus could be the last play of the game, there were things that happened in the middle of the game where we could have stretched the score out and we didn’t get it done.”

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today after his team practiced in preparation for its home game Sunday against the St. Louis Rams. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “I don’t have anything new to add injury wise, I’ll let the report come out. Obviously, there were some more guys practicing. I will add this, Usama Young was out here and went through the whole thing and looked good. Other than that we’ll just see. It was a good practice, it was pretty spirited actually and their attention to detail was pretty good so we’ll clean it up tomorrow then we’ll go play.”

The Browns (3-5) practiced today in preparation for their home game Sunday against the St. Louis Rams (1-7). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

(On if they worked on stopping the run this week in practice)- “We worked on it last week too. Last week, it didn’t go the way we had hoped it would’ve gone. We knew going down there they were just a tremendous offensive football team with a scheme that’s unusual to some degree. We didn’t do the job that we needed to do, obviously. We wanted to limit the big play in the passing game and we were fairly successful there, but the run game just got out of hand, too many big plays. The guys played hard. We just didn’t hit our fits and I didn’t help them with the best calls at the right times.”

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today before his team practiced in preparation for its home game Sunday against the St. Louis Rams. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “Mo (Mohamed) Massaquoi, we sent him home this morning. He still wasn’t feeling right so we sent him home, felt like that was the best course of action. You won’t see Phil Dawson out there he had what can be described as migraines. We sent him home and he won’t kick today, but we don’t feel like that’s going to be anything that’s going to affect Sunday. Otherwise we’ll just let the injury report stand at the end of practice. There’ll be guys that will practice fully and then there will be other guys that aren’t out there so there won’t be much change from the guys that are out from yesterday, generally speaking.”

The Browns (3-5) practiced today in preparation for their home game Sunday against the St. Louis Rams (1-7). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today before his team practiced in preparation for its home game Sunday against the St. Louis Rams. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “For today’s practice, Auston English, Montario Hardesty, Peyton Hillis, Mohamed Massaquoi, Dimitri Patterson, T.J. Ward and Usama Young won’t practice. Some of them will be inside, but some of them will be outside. If you’re out there then you’ll see that, the rest of the guys will be out there. We thought we could go outside, but we got rained on. The weather man was a little off so we’ll probably go back inside. Other than that we’re playing the Rams and I’m familiar with them in ways that I don’t know how it affects the game, but I have a lot of people that I’ve had relationships with because I worked there. I mentioned it two days ago, let’s not look at their record. I know they’ve got a team that’s eager to get a victory, they’re well coached and they have good players so I anticipate it’s going to be a tough test.”

The Browns (3-5) practiced today in preparation for their home game Sunday against the St. Louis Rams (1-7). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

The Browns have signed fullback Eddie Williams to their practice squad. They also have released fullback Will Ta'ufo'ou from their practice squad, the team announced today.

The 6-foot-1, 242-pound Williams was with the Chicago Bears through training camp this year and spent the first week of the regular season on the Browns' practice squad before being signed to the Seattle Seahawks' active roster. He appeared in three games with the Seahawks, rushing for 2 yards on two carries and catching one pass for 17 yards. Williams, who's pictured to the right, also spent one week on the Seahawks' practice squad before being released on Oct. 12.

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today to discuss his team's 30-12 loss to the Houston Texans. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement) - “Let me just talk about injuries. Auston English is progressing, we’ll see what happens for the weekend. Montario Hardesty most likely will be out. Peyton Hillis will be out this week. He’s going to spend his time rehabbing his hamstring. Mohamed Massaquoi as I mentioned yesterday came out of the game. He was feeling woozy and he actually went home today, he wasn’t feeling well so he’s out of the building. There was no specific episode in the game that caused him, we’re just having that evaluated. Tony Pashos got kicked in the leg so we’ll see how he is. Dimitri Patterson is progressing, we’ll see as we near the end of the week his availability. T.J. Ward had a dislocated finger, they popped it back in, got it fixed and then he had a foot sprain. I don’t have any details on that yet he’s still being evaluated on the foot. Usama Young has a hip injury and again, we’ll see how he does as he goes through the week. Rest of the guys, if you’ve got a specific question we’ll talk about it. But, we got beat, got beat pretty well by a good football team. I talked to the players about it today, we watched the film, they’re continuing to finish making the corrections and just like we talk about each Monday we move forward. I don’t mean it to be cliché, it’s just the way it is. You move forward, get yourself ready to play and get ready to play the next opponent, it just happens to be the St. Louis Rams on Sunday. Had a chance to watch that game, they played yesterday and they lost a tough one in overtime. They played good offense, they can be stingy on defense and it’s going to be a tough test.”

Browns running back Peyton Hillis has officially been downgraded to out for Sunday's game against the Houston Texans. During practice Friday, he aggravated a pulled hamstring he suffered Oct. 16 against the Oakland Raiders, left to undergo an MRI and returned to the team's headquarters with his left leg heavily wrapped.

Hillis will miss his third consecutive game and his fourth of the season. He practiced Thursday and had hoped to put the many distractions surrounding his life behind him by returning to action on game days. But now he'll need to wait.

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today after his team practiced in preparation for its game Sunday against the Houston Texans. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “The three players that are out as of listed today would be Auston English, Montario Hardesty and Dimitri Patterson. Peyton (Hillis) we’ll have to see on his hamstring. I think he’s going to get an MRI here this afternoon, just to double check and everybody else will be available.”

The Browns (3-4) practiced today in preparation for their road game Sunday against the Houston Texans (5-3). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

Houston Texans fullback Lawrence Vickers spoke to members of the Houston media today. The Texans provided the following transcript from the interview session:

(On his feelings about playing his former team) -- “I would say I’m excited. I’m excited about it. It’s a challenge. We’re looking forward to going out there, playing our hard-nose football game, but at the same time, I get to see some of my buddies I missed. I spent the last five years with them, so they’re excited about it. They’ve been texting me, telling me don’t try to do all my little stuff. They know me. They know me. They know me. They know me. They’ve just been telling me, ‘Hey man, don’t try to take my head off. I’m going to knock you out.’ Just little stuff playing with me, but I’m looking forward to it.”

(On the Texans having a lot of offensive weapons)- “They really do. They are very, very talented team. They’ve been together a long time, know what they’re doing and know how they want to do it. They really have an up-tempo, not in terms of snapping the ball fast, but they will do that also. They play fast, they’re a fast team. As I said, they know exactly what they want to do and they execute it very well.”

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today before his team practiced in preparation for its game Sunday against the Houston Texans. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “As we get started here, Auston English, Montario Hardesty, Dimitri Patterson won’t be at practice today. English and Hardesty I would say are out. Patterson we’ll just have to wait and see. Everybody else will be out there and do something. They’ll all be involved in practice some more limited than others and we’ll just let the official report stand, but I’ll answer any questions you have.”

The Browns (3-4) practiced today in preparation for their road game Sunday against the Houston Texans (5-3). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

Browns running back Peyton Hillis apologized for missing a Halloween party for families at the Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland on Monday night. Hillis was scheduled to co-host the event with former Browns offensive lineman LeCharles Bentley, according to a news release that was sent to media this past Friday.

"I just want to say I’m sorry about the charity event they had (Monday) with the Boys and Girls Club," Hillis said this afternoon. "There was a lot of miscommunication between me and the management that I have. If I knew the full depths of it, I wouldn’t have missed it. I’ve always made it to community events before, but for some reason that shouldn’t be an excuse now. I want to say I’m sorry about everything and hopefully in the near future we can be able to make that up."

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters today before his team practiced in preparation for its game Sunday against the Houston Texans. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement)- “Let’s see, Auston English and Montario Hardesty most likely won’t play this week. Dimitri Patterson will work inside today, he’s day-to-day. Peyton (Hillis) and Ray Ventrone will do some running. They’ll be at practice and we’ll just see how much they can do. For everybody else, if you’ve got a specific question I’ll answer it. Other than that, I’m excited to get going. The players came back, we had meetings this morning and we’re anxious and eager to put together a good week to go down and play Houston.”

The Browns (3-4) practiced today in preparation for their road game Sunday against the Houston Texans (5-3). Reporters were allowed to watch about 30 minutes of practice. Here's what you need to know about the open session:

The Browns went searching for a running back and found one they already knew in Thomas Clayton. They signed Clayton and made room on the roster by waiving wide receiver Brian Robiskie, a second-round draft pick in 2009, the team announced today.

Browns coach Pat Shurmur met with reporters Monday to discuss his team's 20-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Here is a transcript from the news conference:

(Opening statement) - “I’ll start first with injuries. Auston English is progressing, but more than likely he’ll be out this week. Montario Hardesty, you saw very early in the game, second series, pulled a calf muscle. He’s going to miss some time. It’ll be hard to see how long that will be, but I think he’s in a boot at this point and he’s going to miss some time. Mohamed Massaquoi will do some light running today and he’s making good progress so we’ll see. Peyton Hillis is day-to-day. Dimitri Patterson is having an MRI on his left knee, we haven’t gotten the results back on that and then Ray Ventrone ran today and he’s doing well. Chris Gocong had a stinger. Kaluka (Maiava) played through the game with his knee, he’s fine. Tony Pashos played through the game. T.J. Ward is sore, but other than that, all the other guy’s, there’s nothing else to mention. One thing I’d add to the game last night, again, I’ll start with the defense. The defense battled. The first half could’ve gotten way out of reach, we had a stop on fourth down which was outstanding and then in the second half limited the 49ers to no points and less than 100 yards so I think that says a lot. They battled. I think the whole team battled. Now, we’ve got to play better in some areas of course, but the defense found a way to keep them off the board and keep them from making yards. I think that’s important, especially in the second half.